jps 2Kings:23:1-30 SEEK
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And the king sent ,
and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem .
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And the king went up to the house of the LORD ,
and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him ,
and the priests ,
and the prophets ,
and all the people ,
both small and great ;
and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD .
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And the king stood on the platform ,
and made a covenant before the LORD ,
to walk after the LORD ,
and to keep His commandments ,
and His testimonies ,
and His statutes ,
with all his heart ,
and all his soul ,
to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book ;
and all the people stood to the covenant .
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And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest ,
and the priests of the second order ,
and the keepers of the door ,
to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal ,
and for the Asherah ,
and for all the host of heaven ;
and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron ,
and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el .
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And he put down the idolatrous priests ,
whom the kings of Judah had ordained to offer in the high places in the cities of Judah ,
and in the places round about Jerusalem ;
them also that offered unto Baal ,
to the sun ,
and to the moon ,
and to the constellations ,
and to all the host of heaven .
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And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD ,
without Jerusalem ,
unto the brook Kidron ,
and burned it at the brook Kidron ,
and stamped it small to powder ,
and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the common people .
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And he broke down the houses of the sodomites ,
that were in the house of the LORD ,
where the women wove coverings for the Asherah .
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And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah ,
and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings ,
from Geba to Beer-sheba ;
and he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city ,
which were on a man '
s left hand as he entered the gate of the city .
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Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem ,
but they did eat unleavened bread among their brethren .
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And he defiled Topheth ,
which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom ,
that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech .
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And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun ,
at the entrance of the house of the LORD ,
by the chamber of Nethan-melech the officer ,
which was in the precincts ;
and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire .
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And the altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz ,
which the kings of Judah had made ,
and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD ,
did the king break down ,
and beat them down from thence ,
and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron .
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And the high places that were before Jerusalem ,
which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption ,
which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the detestation of the Zidonians ,
and for Chemosh the detestation of Moab ,
and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon ,
did the king defile .
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And he broke in pieces the pillars ,
and cut down the Asherim ,
and filled their places with the bones of men .
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Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el ,
and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat ,
who made Israel to sin ,
had made ,
even that altar and the high place he broke down ;
and he burned the high place and stamped it small to powder ,
and burned the Asherah .
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And as Josiah turned himself ,
he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount ;
and he sent ,
and took the bones out of the sepulchres ,
and burned them upon the altar ,
and defiled it ,
according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed ,
who proclaimed these things .
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Then he said : '
What monument is that which I see ?'
And the men of the city told him : '
It is the sepulchre of the man of God ,
who came from Judah ,
and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el .'
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And he said : '
Let him be ;
let no man move his bones .'
So they let his bones alone ,
with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria .
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And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria ,
which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD ,
Josiah took away ,
and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el .
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And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there ,
upon the altars ,
and burned men '
s bones upon them ;
and he returned to Jerusalem .
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And the king commanded all the people ,
saying : '
Keep the passover unto the LORD your God ,
as it is written in this book of the covenant .'
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For there was not kept such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel ,
nor in all the days of the kings of Israel ,
nor of the kings of Judah ;
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but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was this passover kept to the LORD in Jerusalem .
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Moreover them that divined by a ghost or a familiar spirit ,
and the teraphim ,
and the idols ,
and all the detestable things that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem ,
did Josiah put away ,
that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD .
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And like unto him was there no king before him ,
that turned to the LORD with all his heart ,
and with all his soul ,
and with all his might ,
according to all the law of Moses ;
neither after him arose there any like him .
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Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of His great wrath ,
wherewith His anger was kindled against Judah ,
because of all the provocations wherewith Manasseh had provoked Him .
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And the LORD said : '
I will remove Judah also out of My sight ,
as I have removed Israel ,
and I will cast off this city which I have chosen ,
even Jerusalem ,
and the house of which I said :
My name shall be there .'
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Now the rest of the acts of Josiah ,
and all that he did ,
are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah ?
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In his days Pharaoh-necoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates ;
and king Josiah went against him ;
and he slew him at Megiddo ,
when he had seen him .
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And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo ,
and brought him to Jerusalem ,
and buried him in his own sepulchre .
And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah ,
and anointed him ,
and made him king in his father '
s stead .